well hard by the place where she had
been bathing.

No sooner had she secured them than the aspect of their home was
changed. The Cow-herd's wife once more became the Spinning Girl and
hied her to her heavenly abode.

It so happened that her husband had a piece of cow-skin which gave him
power over earth and air. Snatching up this, with his ox-goad, he
followed in the footsteps of his fleeing wife.

Arriving at their heavenly home the happy couple sought the joys of
married life. The Spinning Girl gave up her loom, and the Cow-herd his
cattle, until their negligence annoyed the King of Heaven, and he
repented having let her leave her loom. He called upon the Western
Royal Mother for advice. After consultation they decided that the two
should be separated. The Queen, with a single stroke of her great
silver hairpin, drew a line across the heavens, and from that time the
Heavenly River has flowed between them, and they are destined to dwell
forever on the two sides of the Milky Way.

What had seemed to the youthful pair the promise of perpetual joy,
became a condition of unending grief. They were on the two sides of a
bridgeless river, in plain sight of each other, but forever debarred
from hearing the voice or pressing the land of the one beloved, doomed
to perpetual toil unlit by any ray of joy or hope.

Their evident affection and unhappy condition moved the heart of His
Majesty, and caused him to allow them to visit each other once with
each revolving year,--on the seventh day of the seventh moon. But
permission was not enough, for as they looked upon the foaming waters
of the turbulent stream, they could but weep for their wretched
condition, for no bridge united its two banks, nor was it allowed that
any structure be built which would mar the contour of the shining dome.

In their helplessness the magpies came to their rescue. At early morn
on the seventh day of the seventh moon, these beautiful birds gathered
in great flocks about the home of the maiden, and hovering wing to wing
above the river, made a bridge across which her dainty feet might carry
her in safety. But when the time for separation came, the two wept
bitterly, and their tears falling in copious showers are the cause of
the heavy rains which fall at that season of the year.

From time immemorial it has been known that the Yellow River is neither
more nor less than a prolongation of the Milky Way, soiled by earthly
contact and contamination,